RALEIGH, N.C. — Rafael Lopez homered in each of the first two innings, and sixth-ranked Florida State broke open a 3-2 game with six runs in the late innings to defeat NC State 9-4 in the first game of a three-game ACC series at Doak Field at Dail Park.

The Wolfpack falls to 28-22 overall with the loss, and 11-14 in the conference. The Seminoles improve to 38-12 overall and 17-8 in the conference.

FSU jumped to a 3-0 lead after two innings thanks to Lopez’s two long balls. He led off the game with a solo shot, then hit a two-out two-run homer in the top of the second. Those three runs came at the expense of Wolfpack starter Rob Chamra (7-2), who worked 3 2/3 innings and allowed five hits and struck out three.

NC State cut the lead to a run in the bottom of the fourth. Brett Williams led off with an infield single. With one away, Harold Riggins hit a potential double-play grounder, but shortstop Justin Gonzalez threw the ball away at second base, allowing the runners to move to second and third. Andrew Ciencin singled to center to drive in one run, and then the game was interrupted by lightning and rain for a delay of 91 minutes. When the game resumed, Cameron Conner drove in a run with a groundout.

Both teams scored in the seventh. Florida State center fielder Mike McGee drew a one-out walk, stole second, took third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch. NC State scored in the bottom of the seventh on Chris Schaeffer’s sacrifice fly.

With Seminoles on second and third, one out and the infield playing up in the top of the eighth, Sean O’Brien hit a sharp grounder that went through Matt Bergquist’s glove for an error, allowing two runs to score and pushing the lead to 6-3.

The Wolfpack answered in the bottom of the eighth on back-to-back infield singles by Riggins and Ciencin, both of which were thrown away for errors by Lopez at third base. The second error allowed Riggins to score and cut the lead to 6-4. That was all for Florida State starter Sean Gilmartin (9-1), who worked 7 1/3 innings and allowed four runs, all unearned, on seven hits. He struck out nine and did not walk a batter. Daniel Bennett got the final five outs without allowing a run to earn his 10th save of the season.

The Seminoles added three insurance runs in the top of the ninth on an RBI single by Gonzalez, a sacrifice fly by Taiwan Easterling and an RBI single by Robby Stahl.

NC State and Florida State will play the second game of this three-game Atlantic Coast Conference series on Saturday at 6:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast live on WKNC-FM (88.1) and will be available on-line with videostreaming on GoPack.com’s All-Access package.

Saturday’s game, which will feature American Idol star Scotty McCreery of Garner throwing out the first pitch, is officially sold out.

Live stats will be available on Gametracker. Just click the Gametracker icon on the baseball schedule page on GoPack.com.

As always, please visit GoPack.com regularly for full coverage of all NC State athletics news and events.